Veggie Plate

I spent my childhood in Indiana, Ohio, & upstate New York.  Although my family moved to the south (oops, sorry, I mean The South) when I was in Jr High, I didn't have my first "veggie plate" at a meat-n-three establishment until my freshman year at Auburn University.  (Veggies to Go, for all you Plainsmen out there.  And that was where I learned banana pudding was a "veggie.")  ;)

If we want to learn to love vegetables, and we want to learn how to love cooking vegetables, we've got to cook & eat vegetables.  Genius, I know.

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Veggie Plate night is our creative outlet.  Think about veggies you love--do you have any?  What are your favorite ways to make them?  What are new ways you could make them?  Sauteed?  Roasted?  Braised?  Steamed?  Casseroled?  (Yeah, I just used "casseroled" as a verb.  Auburn made a Southern girl out of me!)  Try to keep your method fairly healthy.  (Green Bean Casserole with loads of cream of processed food soup & butter & fried anything is probably not the way to go...but wait--surely there's a healthier version??)

Ok, now think of veggies you hate or don't care for...I wonder if there's any way you could make them into something you'd like.  Don't like eggplant...but what about baba ganoush?  What about eggplants on Pioneer Woman's pizza?  Don't like artichokes...but what about a healthier spinach artichoke dip?  What about artichokes on pizza?  (Ok, I like pizza.)  Technically, I used to hate greens.  But I just needed to find the right recipe and try them enough times...

Pick just one veggie to gussy up for the week, and steam two others.  Then pick a whole grain.  The end.

I got my Collard Greens recipe from none other than The Miss Southern Cook herself...Paula Deen.  My whole grain is the intriguing-sounding Quick Whole Wheat & Molasses Bread from Mark Bittman.